[HCARC] Cat5 vs. Cat5e vs. Cat6 – Which Ethernet Cable Should You Be Using?

[Gary and Arlene Johnson]

To answer both Dale G and Harry Folk at the same time.  Thank you Harry for the link to the differences between the Cable Cats.  It is very helpful.  For Dale, to "transmit" my internet signal from the house to the Garage/Shop/Ham Shack has been considered.  To do so will require completely changing the location of the router in the house, and/or having WCC.net folks come out and relocate my antenna that I receive my internet on and subsequently changing the location of the router at the same time.  In addition I have to purchase said directional antenna.  My house is made from straw bales - the walls are nominally 20 inches thick with chicken wire to hold the stucco on both the inside and the outside of the walls.  Kind of like living in a giant Faraday Cage.  Radio reception inside the house without an antenna outside is not so good.  225-250 feet of direct burial Cat 6E with the ends professionally installed only will cost me about $65-70 on Ebay.  The ditch in the ground will get dug at the same time I ditch for the conduit for antennas, electricity for my outlying barns, and probably for a few water lines to bring my second source of rainwater into the house.  All of those projects are just about ready for digging to happen.  I just need to figure out exactly where I will locate the tower and I should be good to go.  I was just letting people know of the availability of Cat 6E cable - which until yesterday I had never heard of.  The difference in price of the run of Cat6E vs Cat 5E is about $10 - not enough to prevent me from going with the better stuff.  My only next decision is whether to put the direct burial cable in a conduit or not to protect me from stupidly digging through it - something I have done once or twice when I forgot where I had put a water line.  That said, this next ditch digging is about all of the rest of the digging I should ever have to do - the projects are about done, I don't expect a neighbor to gift me with even more wire, and I am getting too old to get beat up running a ditcher.  Yes I will hurt even more than normal after a weekend on the business side of a ditch digger.  There is a faint hope however that it will shake something into place rather than out of place as is the norm.  

I suspect this is much more than either of you cared to hear about.

Gary J
N5BAA
HCARC Secretary 2013
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harry Folk 
  To: hcarc ; Gary and Arlene Johnson 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:12 AM
  Subject: FW: Cat5 vs. Cat5e vs. Cat6 – Which Ethernet Cable Should You Be Using?


  Gary,


  This should help answer your question on cable.


  Hank
  KF5QBF




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: hankfolk at hotmail.com
  Subject: Cat5 vs. Cat5e vs. Cat6 – Which Ethernet Cable Should You Be Using?
  Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:10:31 -0600
  To: hankfolk at hotmail.com




  http://www.a-wiring.com/cat5-vs-cat5e-vs-cat6-which-ethernet-cable-should-you-be-using/


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